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Chandigarh Golf Association’s bank account frozen
Twenty-nine permanent members of the CGA had issued a legal notice to the bank, demanding that its account and any fixed deposits associated with the CGA Golf Range’s current account in the name of the CGA Range be frozen due to serious irregularities
In fresh trouble for the Chandigarh Golf Association (CGA) in Sector 6, a private bank has frozen its account due to alleged irregularities.
The CGA is the parent body of the Chandigarh Golf Range, a leading golf training organisation in the region located near Sukhna Lake. It was established in 1999 and has around 1,200 permanent members, 500 temporary members, and 200 student members.
Twenty-nine permanent members of the CGA had issued a legal notice to the bank, demanding that its account and any fixed deposits associated with the CGA Golf Range’s current account in the name of the CGA Range be frozen due to serious irregularities. The members alleged that the CGA is registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860, and is a ‘Society.’ As such, an account can be opened only in the name of the Chandigarh Golf Association as a legal entity.
Following this, the bank has froze the account.
The notice further alleged that the accounts in the name and style of CGA Golf Range are illegal. There must be an elected body among the 1,200 permanent members of the CGA Golf Range, who would then be the authorised account holders of the CGA Golf Range.
UT hasn’t renewed its lease deed
The UT administration had already issued a show-cause notice to CGA for additional building violations under Rule 14 and Rule 16 of the Chandigarh Estate Rules, 2007.
Furthermore, the UT administration has not renewed the CGA’s lease deed for the past two years due to numerous complaints from members regarding violations of Clauses 9 and 10 of the lease deed. The lease deed expired in 2022, and as per the norm, the lease is renewed for three years.
When contacted, SK Sharma, president of the CGA Golf Range, said, “We have already issued a notice to the bank about the freezing of our account. They cannot do this based on the statements of a few members. As far as the lease deed is concerned, we have already written to the UT administration as there are some technical issues, and we are in the process of sorting them out. We are hopeful that it will be resolved soon.”
On being asked about members’ demand for elections, he said, “We are already in the process of amending the constitution, and the governing body has proposed to induct 25 members from the Golf Range to become part of the CGA body.”
Sandeep Sehgal, a permanent member of the CGA, says, “The President of the CGA is completely ignoring the lease conditions, which call for annual elections among all Range members. As per Clause 10 of the lease deed, ‘Annual elections will be held for the executive of the CGA. No individual shall occupy a position for more than two consecutive years.’”
Another senior permanent member of the CGA, RK Chaudhary, says, “The governing body has proposed to induct 25 members from the Range. But at the same time, the question is why are they concealing the fact that the governing body has started the process to induct 20-odd more members of their choice into the CGA General Body, who are being proposed by the governing body members. The CGA should follow the pattern of the Chandigarh Golf Club, where, right from its inception, the members of the Chandigarh Golf Club Society decided to elect an executive every year from among the permanent members of the Golf Club.”
